3.11 High Performance NTFS Driver (Tuxera)

With ZENworks 11 SP2, the High Performance NTFS driver (Tuxera), provides enhanced performance for imaging Windows 7 and Windows XP NTFS file systems when compared to ZENworks legacy imaging. Tuxera driver, also known as tntfs Kernel Module driver combined with the Imaging engine provides substantial performance improvements. For operations concerning base images, the Tuxera driver is used if it is uploaded and present in the zone. For add-on images, only the legacy ntfs driver is used.

3.11.1 Adding Tuxera Driver for ZENworks Imaging

You can download the Tuxera driver and upload it to the server from the local system through the ZENworks Control Center.

Download the latest high performance NTFS driver from the hyperlink provided and save it on your local system.

Browse to and select the driver in the location where it is saved on your local system.

Click Apply to upload the driver to the server.

Click Ok to exit the Preboot Services page.

Click Status to view the status of content replication across all Primary and Satellite Servers in the Management zone.

NOTE:

An image taken by using the legacy NTFS driver is restored by the legacy NTFS driver. For high performance, these images need to be recreated by using the High Performance NTFS (Tuxera) driver after the driver is uploaded into the ZENworks Control Center and the status is Available.

After a successful upload, this NTFS driver, is integrated with the bootcd_tntfs.iso file in the winutils folder. To use the High Performance NTFS driver, use the bootcd_tntfs.iso file instead of the bootcd.iso file.

3.11.2 legacyntfs switch functionality

You can use the legacyntfs switch in order to use the legacy NTFS driver.

Boot the system into the ZENworks Maintenance mode.

Take an image of the device by using the img -legacyntfs command.

For example, you can run the following command:

img -rp <image_name>.zmg -legacyntfs (Ensure that the -legacyntfs is at the end of the command).

NOTE:

If you take an image by using the legacy NTFS driver, the image is restored by the legacy NTFS driver. Also, if the tntfs.ko file is not uploaded, you need not use the legacyntfs switch. In such situations, the imaging engine uses the legacy NTFS driver. When the tntfs.ko driver is present, the imaging engine uses the Tuxera driver.

3.11.3 Pre-requisites for taking and restoring an image partition-wise

While taking an image from a device, take a backup of the MBR of the system as follows:

Export the MBR to a file by using the dd if=/dev/sda of=mbr_win7.bin bs=512 count=1 command.

Upload the MBR file to server. If the system has 100MB partition (on Windows 7, or Windows Vista), take an image of the 100 MB partition separately by using the legacyntfs switch. To take an image of the 100 MB partition by using the legacyntfs switch, run the following command:

# img -mp 100mb.zmg -I=1 -legacyntfs

In the above command, -I =1 indicates that you include partition number 1, which is the 100 MB partition.

To restore the images partition-wise, do the following:

Delete all the partitions by using the img -pd command. For example:

img -pd 1

img -pd 2

1 and 2 in the above commands correspond to the hard disk partition number.

Mark the following three partitions as active by using the img -pa <partition number> command:

Boot partition 300MB

EFI system partition

Microsoft reserved partition

For example, to make the first partition active, run the img -pa 1 command. For information about the three partitions, refer to the following image.

Restore each partition using the advanced switches:

img -r -p win8-efi-recovery.zmg -ap=a1:p1

img -r -p win8-efi-boot.zmg -ap=a1:p2

img -r -p win8-efi-msr.zmg -ap=a1:p3

img -r -p win8-base.zmg -ap=a1:p4

Run the sidChange –I command.

Restoring Linux images partition-wise:

Run the following GRUB install command:

grub-install.unsupported --recheck --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

Mount the boot partition to the /mnt directory.

If the /etc/fstab and the grub.conf files use UUID to map the partitions, then execute the procedure given below before running the grub-install.unsupported --recheck --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda command:

Obtain the UUID for the partitions by running the following command:

#blkid -o full -s UUID

You can see the following message on the screen:

/dev/sda1: UUID="a0f83e2a-1579-423e-9a5b-70104f5ff384"

/dev/sda2: UUID="de8c2a54-ec39-45bf-8c9e-fa63b3585193"

/dev/sda3: UUID="781f9eb0-faf4-4b39-b431-908179ad72b4"

Mount the boot partition and update the fstab and the grub.conf files by running the following command: